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Blog Project - Week Four


Netflix and SEO
Ciara Smith
DeVry University

Abstract
            Today’s blog post we are going back to discussing our original company of choice, Netflix. We will be talking about our favorite streaming service once again and will go into analyzing and discussing the search engine rankings and where Netflix falls on this scale. How good is their social media presence? What could they do to improve? These are all things that could potentially grow their business and I have a few ideas that they could possibly consider. 






Netflix and SEO
We all know Netflix as a popular streaming service that we can view on most popular internet compatible device. This can include smart TVs, game systems, cell phones, tablets or laptops for example. Due to it being an internet-based business one might assume their search engine optimization (SEO) would be at the top of the charts! Consumers are already using the internet to search for this business. With that being said, it makes you wonder; how many are actually searching for Netflix in an actual search engine.
 An article written by Peter Kafka on Vox.com says 70% of Netflix users stream via televisions as opposed to phones, tablets, or computers. The consumers are seldom using search engines to look for Netflix. Netflix has recognized this and has tried taking steps to improve. According to an article on Sistrix.com, in 2017, Netflix.com had a dramatic loss in visibility on Google all over the world and can’t seem to turn it around. Even today, if you do a google search for “popular streaming services” Netflix was #8 and amongst all the results and could easily be missed or skipped over.
The article on the Sistrix website talks about how this could be due to what they call “cloaking” and it causes Google to eliminate search results because of Google’s guidelines. They believe this is happening because if you know something about international internet access, all of Netflix content is not universal. Some countries have licensing rights to certain TV shows and movies but if you are accessing in another country, you are going to get a list of some completely different shows and movies. So, for example, if you were to be in Canada and do a Google search for the TV show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, it is going to direct you to Netflix to assist you in watching the episodes. If you are in the United States and Google search Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, it will direct you to some general information and other sites that offer that show for purchase. Due to this type of redirection, it negatively impacts Netflix’s SEO and sometimes will cause Google not to show any results at all and will remove Netflix from the search. Now, they say Netflix isn’t “cloaking” on purpose, it's just what they deal with considering the licensing in each country is different.
Now, while I don’t know much about how difficult it is to get a license for a TV show or movie but what I would suggest for Netflix is don’t let that stop them from trying to improve their SEO. I would consider for them to seek out the most popular Googled or searched shows and make sure the search engines will refer to Netflix as the first option if it is available in that country. This fall more under a “pay per click” option but it could help gain more subscribers. I would also make sure Netflix is looking into why they aren’t a better result when searching for “stream service” or “popular stream service.” Considering that there are lots of new streaming services being released every year, Netflix needs to compete with this competition and let the consumer know that they still offer the most value and best selection.
Also, keywords are going to be crucial when optimizing the search engines. I would also recommend to Netflix is to team up with Google or the search engines and look more in-depth into this “cloaking” policy. Maybe there are things about the guidelines that could potentially be modified or updated to match with the current times.



References
Gonzalez, J. (2017, October 16). International SEO - Netflix's SEO problems on
     Google and what you can learn from them [Blog post]. Retrieved from Sistrix
     website: https://www.sistrix.com/blog/netflix-seo-problems-google-can-learn/
Kafka, P. (2018, March 7). You can watch Netflix on any screen you want, but
     you're probably watching it on a TV. Vox-recode. Retrieved from
     https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17094610/netflix-70-percent-tv-viewing-statistics

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